According to the report, Nokia’s actions include a complaint to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) against HTC, suits against HTC and Viewsonic in the Federal District Court of Delaware, US, against HTC and RIM in the Regional Court in Dusseldorf, Germany and against all three companies in the Regional Courts in Mannheim and Munich, Germany. In total, 45 Nokia patents are in suit in one or more of the actions.
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Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions: And the smartphone patent war rages on. Nokia’s primary concern is that their proprietary patents are being utilized in their competitors’ phones to enable hardware capabilities (dual function antennas, power management, etc.) as well as software features (such as application stores, navigation, conversational message display, etc.). And one can’t necessarily blame them for protectiveness over these innovations when their monetary investment in smartphone R&D is considered: over 45 billion Euro.

The decisions in these cases will have a major impact on consumer innovation and the ongoing flurry of lawsuits in the smartphone space. Nokia has been a pioneer in this space and the company currently boasts 10,000 patent families. As such, they hope that their hard work will be protected. If not? We need to watch this closely because it has implications not just for Nokia, but for all innovators who forge new ground in hotly contested technology areas.